Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Book Review: TBR #4: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth

A book of the imagination. It's the early 1940's, and instead of what actually happened, the author imagines another outcome. Charles Lindbergh, a man with some actual association with Nazi Germany, gets elected President of the United States. Instead of entering World War II, America takes a neutral stance. Instead of Hitler being stopped in his tracks, his influence spreads throughout the world until the U.S. is sucked into a Anti-Semite, Nazi leaning state. Told from the Jewish perspective, it's pretty harrowing stuff.

I must confess, I couldn't help wondering what Charles Lindbergh's living relatives think of the book. They can't have been too pleased with his characterization!

Philip Roth's writing is delicious. That's the only word I can think of that fits. I originally got this book on Audio CD, though, and I must confess I enjoyed listening to it a bit more than reading it. The sentences are long and flowery in nature, and being a speedy reader, I find it slows me down a bit in order to savor and enjoy all his skill with language. I'd like to read more of him, and plan to.

4 comments:

LK said...

This one I must get. I have Everyman in the TBR pile.

Nyssaneala said...

Hey, saw your post over at TBR challenge. I read this book a few months ago, I also felt it was delicious. It was a very interesting, and worrisome, alternate history.

Heather said...

I enjoy these alternate ending type novels! This one sounds good.

Bookfool said...

Oh, darn, another one. I confess that I've never bothered to pick up this book and read about it. I'll have to give this one a try, thanks.